Nine Months
by makesometime
Summary: She is not this stupid. She is not this irresponsible. She is not *this*. Future!fic.


A/N: Apparently it is my one-woman mission to write every fic cliché ever. Awesome.

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><p>In this moment, Alicia Washington hates herself.<p>

She is not this stupid. She is not this irresponsible. She is not _this_.

She stands in front of her full length mirror - one of her very few vanities - and just stares. Scrutinising herself for something that isn't there.

Yet.

She hears a knock at her front door and recognises the rhythm as Mark. It makes a change for him to even bother with the formality and she is absurdly grateful. She contemplates not going to answer it, knowing he wouldn't pry. But she can't help it as her feet trek through her quarters, lieutenant face falling back into place.

She opens the door to find him, grin so broad it threatens to split his face in two. She knows exactly what he's going to say and she hates herself even more.

"Maddy's pregnant!" He cries.

_Yes._ She thinks. _Of__course._

She pulls him into a tight hug to hide her true reaction as she whispers her congratulations.

Of course_._

#

She hides it for as long as possible. Considering how Nathaniel watches her like a hawk the first time she turns up late for patrol, pale and sweaty, she's surprised she manages as long as she does.

She forgets, sometimes that he's done this before. When the memory hits her it often leaves her breathless - Lucas hurt him in ways she can't even begin to comprehend, even with years having passed since the final betrayal. Can she do that to him again?

It also doesn't help that they're both so much older now. Should they even be undertaking this commitment? Even with all their medical advancements, humans still have a very limited life span - and the pair of them don't make it easy for themselves when it comes to conserving it.

In the end he works it out.

She left it too long, hid it too poorly - she never was any good at lying to him - but the expected betrayal isn't present in his eyes when he looks at her.

Instead, she sees cautious, guarded optimism. And for the first time, she feels the same way.

#

It's only when Nathaniel chuckles at her frustration when she's unable to button her pants and she hits him so hard that his cheek splits open that she has to admit she has a bit of a hormone problem.

She patches him up gently, remorsefully, her stitches small and painless as he sits on the end of his - _their_ - bed. His hands come up to rest on her stomach and she sighs, pressing a kiss to his forehead.

"Sorry."

He shakes his head. "Don't mention it."

She goes to see Elisabeth later that day to refresh her first aid supplies and the doctor gasps when she sees blood still on her fingers. Alicia smiles a little when she explains and Elisabeth struggles not to laugh, sharing a similar story from when she was pregnant with Maddy.

She also divulges that Mark has been to see her recently concerned over his wife's mood swings. Alicia knows only too well what the poor boy must be going through and feels a strange sense of satisfaction that he's in no position to mock her.

The two women share a strengthened connection from that day forward. They frequently hold girls-only nights with Maddy, Zoe and Skye, holed up in the Shannon home. (Josh rushes out to work at the mere mention of them. Jim takes a bottle of alcohol, gathers Mark and heads to the Commander's.)

#

She gets bigger quickly. It soon becomes apparent that she shouldn't be allowed OTG any longer - though she doesn't give that up without a hell of a fight.

This, of course, means that Nathaniel has to go out a lot more often, leaving her to hold down the fort from behind his desk. She hates him a little bit every time he leaves her with a sympathetic smile and rub of her growing stomach but at least he doesn't coddle her - she's always plenty busy while he's gone. (And if the troops were scared of her before, they're downright _terrified_ of her now.)

When he returns - healthy or not - she still frets over him as she always has, only now no one has sly comments to make behind their backs and they no longer fuel the gossip mill in the barracks - there's no fun in spreading rumours once they've all turned out to be true.

#

She starts to feel useless right around the time Elisabeth finally enforces her rest from active duty. Guzman takes over her position and she is relegated to watching and waiting.

Watching Nathaniel go about his business, knowing she's more than capable of assisting.

Waiting for him or Mark or Jim to come back from a mission when they're already a day late.

Watching Maddy Reynolds blossoming, thriving.

Waiting to feel anything other than like she's lost her one purpose in life.

But damn if Nathaniel's eyes don't light up every time she walks into a room. She feels like the most precious thing in the world at these moments, completely at odds with her carefully built independence.

Secretly, she loves it.

#

Maddy Reynolds goes into labour four weeks before Alicia's due date.

She thinks she should feel worse about the flood of relief she feels at this news, at the fact that the young woman has to go through all of this shit first.

Her karma rights itself when Mark comes for her, begging her to stay with him while he waits for progress. She protests that she really doesn't think she's right for the job, but Nathaniel is there when he visits and suggests it might help her to get some experience.

Her resulting scowl is enough to stop Mark's frantic pawing at her arm and make him take a step backwards.

She's angry enough to almost shoot back a reminder that it's been a while since he did it, maybe he should get a refresher too but she holds it back. He's stopped looking guilty every time he appreciates the sight of her pregnant body, finally come to terms with his second chance being deserved. She's not going to risk taking him back there again. Even with her (nerve-induced) rage, she wouldn't dare.

So she relents, follows Mark out of their quarters. She's not quite out the door when she feels a hand wrap around her wrist and tug her back, lips meeting hers before she can exclaim her surprise.

Mark is waiting around the corner for her when she surfaces, cheeks flushed and lips red. He looks a mixture of terrified and vaguely disgusted and she figures that that is payback enough for what he's about to get her to do.

#

Nathaniel is OTG when Alicia's waters break.

She's so ridiculously, unspeakably, infuriatingly _pissed__off_ with him for it that she paces in front of the gate for an hour before anyone realises she's even slightly in pain.

He was due back in the morning. Elisabeth finally gets her to the hospital just after lunch. Mark frantically radios him and Jim for the next two hours.

Later she'll laugh as Jim relates to her the story of what happens next.

The men were out of range of the communications relay for a good hour without even realising it. The moment they passed into its coverage area the radio crackled to life, a few random and ultimately useless words of Mark's message making it through.

It took another ten minutes to get a clear connection but once they did, Jim said, Taylor was like a man possessed. He drove the rover back to the colony at top speed all the way, the engine whining in protest for the last few miles. The gate was already up when they approached and he shot straight through, heading for the hospital without even lifting his foot off the gas.

(Luckily, Mark had foreseen this possibility and ensured a clear, pedestrian-free route there.)

They arrived and Jim had to take over the controls to stop the vehicle as Taylor leapt out without even cutting the ignition. By the time he'd made it into the building the older man was nowhere to be seen, but Mark was waiting anxiously in the foyer to stop Jim from encroaching too far.

When he overheard the obscenities issuing from the mouth of the equally frustrated and relieved Lieutenant, he'd never liked his son-in-law more.

#

Alicia watches Nathaniel now, ready to present the newest Terra Novan to the assembled members of the colony. She's seen him do it a hundred times before, most recently with baby Reynolds not a month previous.

But she never thought she'd see him do it with his own child.

She never thought she'd see him do it with _hers._

Her heart feels like it will burst with pride as she stands beside him and places their child in his arms.

The cheer that goes up from the crowd is deafening, yet their child sleeps on.

She's heard the proclamation that Terra Nova is a new start, is home, more times than she can remember over the years.

For the first time, roots now firmly established, she feels that it is true.


End file.
